Night Sweats: Mega++
Headache on waking: Slight to moderate
Eyes: Dry and gritty
A two load of washing night. I'm feeling a bit washed out, although am delighted to see the grey sky breaking up and no rain. Having said this, I feel a little guilty whinging about the grey sky when others have had their plans to get to the Gold Coast for the Marathon disrupted so greatly.
No rain? I spoke too early! By the time I left for Customs it was pouring, although was very local. Aki came for the first time in way too long, to the site of her first public run. On that occasion, she struggled to get up the final rise on a flat course, and felt as though she was going to die. Today, she was a seasoned pro, jogging confidently around the course to warm up, and ran a strong and tactical race. I started two and a half minutes behind her, and only caught sight of her when she was powering away from the turnaround about 800m in front of me! I tried to yell out a feeble 'Go Cool Runner!' at this point, although the rain had started again and the conditions were poor. Whilst I knew I was way off PB pace, I was working pretty hard, and the first run on my ankle without strapping was a little telling.
At the finish line, Aki looked fully recovered, and when I had finished gasping, found out that she had finished in only a tad over 23 minutes, 40 seconds off her previous run, which was already a big PB. To put further icing on the cake, she was 15 seconds quicker than me, and feels that she started her finishing kick too late, and could have gone faster!
This equated to a pace of 4:37 per kilometre, which is awesome. The wind off nearby snow made it too chilly to do a warm down lap of Central Basin, however going straight home seemed inappropriate on such an auspicious occasion. We celebrated with a drink at The Deck at Regatta Point, and planned out next campaign.
I feel really proud!
Showers continued to come and go throughout the afternoon, as I criss-crossed the city from one side of the lake to the other and back again, returning the lamps and seeking some stop gap replacements. Eventually I succeeded, and topped up with not-too-expensive petrol on the way home.
I now need to turn my mind to tomorrow morning's Off-Road Duathlon on a very soggy Black Mountain. If I hadn't pre-entered I wouldn't consider doing this at all ~ I am planning to use my bike with slicks (with the pressure let down a bit), and leaving the heavy rear rack on. The first run leg (3.3km) is quite straight forward, neither very hilly nor (hopefully) too soggy. The bike leg is more challenging. Under good conditions, the 23kms took me rather longer than an hour, with a hair raising descent and the odd sharp climb. After the recent deluge I don't know what to expect, other than a very slow time and some time spent wheeling the bike.
Headache on waking: Slight to moderate
Eyes: Dry and gritty
A two load of washing night. I'm feeling a bit washed out, although am delighted to see the grey sky breaking up and no rain. Having said this, I feel a little guilty whinging about the grey sky when others have had their plans to get to the Gold Coast for the Marathon disrupted so greatly.
No rain? I spoke too early! By the time I left for Customs it was pouring, although was very local. Aki came for the first time in way too long, to the site of her first public run. On that occasion, she struggled to get up the final rise on a flat course, and felt as though she was going to die. Today, she was a seasoned pro, jogging confidently around the course to warm up, and ran a strong and tactical race. I started two and a half minutes behind her, and only caught sight of her when she was powering away from the turnaround about 800m in front of me! I tried to yell out a feeble 'Go Cool Runner!' at this point, although the rain had started again and the conditions were poor. Whilst I knew I was way off PB pace, I was working pretty hard, and the first run on my ankle without strapping was a little telling.
At the finish line, Aki looked fully recovered, and when I had finished gasping, found out that she had finished in only a tad over 23 minutes, 40 seconds off her previous run, which was already a big PB. To put further icing on the cake, she was 15 seconds quicker than me, and feels that she started her finishing kick too late, and could have gone faster!
This equated to a pace of 4:37 per kilometre, which is awesome. The wind off nearby snow made it too chilly to do a warm down lap of Central Basin, however going straight home seemed inappropriate on such an auspicious occasion. We celebrated with a drink at The Deck at Regatta Point, and planned out next campaign.
I feel really proud!
Showers continued to come and go throughout the afternoon, as I criss-crossed the city from one side of the lake to the other and back again, returning the lamps and seeking some stop gap replacements. Eventually I succeeded, and topped up with not-too-expensive petrol on the way home.
I now need to turn my mind to tomorrow morning's Off-Road Duathlon on a very soggy Black Mountain. If I hadn't pre-entered I wouldn't consider doing this at all ~ I am planning to use my bike with slicks (with the pressure let down a bit), and leaving the heavy rear rack on. The first run leg (3.3km) is quite straight forward, neither very hilly nor (hopefully) too soggy. The bike leg is more challenging. Under good conditions, the 23kms took me rather longer than an hour, with a hair raising descent and the odd sharp climb. After the recent deluge I don't know what to expect, other than a very slow time and some time spent wheeling the bike.
"The final leg of the Long Course is a testing mountain run. . . . which climbs steeply uphill for 300m before flattening out. . . . Follow this roller coaster road up and down for a few kilometres . . . (then) follow track up "Breakfast Hill", a gut-busting rocky climb straight up for 680m."
What have I got myself in for? The run will be fine (hence this is where I am a Cool Runner and not a cool biker), but I have to get there first! With the conditions so wet and cool, I need to spend a fair bit of time in working out what to wear tomorrow, methods of keeping things dry (note to self: full fingered gloves for MTB leg. Likely to hit the dirt and be cold) and warm enough. Too much procrastinating. I must go and get things ready. Brrrrr.
All the best for tomorrow. I hope the rain stops soon and you avoid the mud! I won't publish a picture of you at the finish, unless you particularly request it.
Way too chilly to be running at lunchtime - definitely Canberra duck weather! I would've skipped the run and just gone for the coffee at The Deck. Good luck for tomorrow. :-)